Who Knows?

Favorite friend Beth rented The God That Wasn’t There which made me want to rant for hours, days, weeks.

I know. Beth rocks.

The film explores four decades between Jesus’ death and when the gospels were written. The director also talks about Saul/Paul’s break with Judaism to found a new religion. Curious because Paul never met Jesus and only writes about three aspects of his savior’s life: death, resurrection and ascension. Either Paul was clueless about Jesus’ formative years or those formative years simply weren’t important. The director suggested that Paul considered Jesus a mythological figure instead of a real man.

Several characteristics have been used for thousands of years when writing about literary or mythological “saviors”. These include a virgin birth, dying and rising on the third day, sitting at the right hand of the father…there are plenty more. Jesus shares many of these traits. This implies that the writers of the Gospels understood a popular genre and used it to sell their own stories. What other explanation is there?

Several experts talked about their dismay when first discovering folklore similarities and inconsistencies within the Bible itself. Several came to the conclusion, rightfully so, that events like the Inquisition were not a gross misinterpretation of church doctrine like modern mainstream Christians insist. Even modern crusaders who call for the death of homosexuals are acting in a matter consistent with their faith.

Playing devil’s advocate, I pointed out that there are many passages in the Bible calling for love and understanding. This doesn’t prove the other passages wrong; just that those who literally interpret the Good Book are, for lack of a better word, insane.

Such experts, like the director, became dismayed and lost their faith. One professor, however, said that he recently began attending a Methodist church again. He appreciates the lessons learned in such parables and stories. He just no longer believes they actually happened.

The Torah is a collection of stories that chronicle an interpretation of how my religion and its people began. The Talmud is an extension and explores arguments from people trying to come to grips with what can be a confusing and contradictory book. I never took the stories as fact and, as a result, do not find fault with a man who suggests the same of the New Testament. Wow, though, don’t Christians freak out at the very thought that evidence might suggest anything other than what they were taught in Sunday school as a kid.

At the end of the movie, I posed this question to Beth: If you discovered evidence that proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Jesus did not exist or, at the very least, that his story was exaggerated – would you reveal such evidence?

As much as I appreciate history and value the separation of fact from fiction, I would keep such a discovery to myself. The majority of our born again neighbors become so for a reason. Many millions do right because they are afraid of punishment from God. They acknowledge Christ and his laws because they don’t want to fry in a lake of fire. I appreciate the way Christianity brought monotheism to a previously barbaric world and wouldn’t want to go back. Thanks anyway.